System and method for citation processing presentation, and transport

ABSTRACT

The present invention comprises a system and method for automatically processing one or more citations contained within a document while the document is presented by a document rendering application. The method of the present invention comprises scanning the document to identify an unformatted citation and parsing the unformatted citation to determine one or more citation terms. One or more citation libraries are queried to find citations comprising the one or more citation terms. A citation falling within the scope of the query is selected and inserted into the document.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims benefit of priority as a continuation ofU.S. application Ser. No. 10/166,058, filed Jun. 10, 2002, entitled“System And Method For Citation Processing, Presentation and Transport,”and having been assigned U.S. Pat. No. 8,082,241 for issuance on Dec.20, 2011, and U.S. application Ser. No. 13/327,399, filed Dec. 15, 2011,entitled “System And Method For Citation Processing, Presentation andTransport,” and having been assigned U.S. Pat. No. 8,566,304 forissuance on Oct. 22, 2013, which patents are incorporated herein byreference in the entirety.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention disclosed herein relates generally to document processingsystems. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems andmethods for dynamically processing citation data for presentation withina document rendering application, such as a word processor.

Document processing systems and methods are well known to the art, mostnotably dynamic spell checking systems. One example of a documentprocessing system for dynamic spell checking is U.S. Pat. No. 5,649,222(“the '222 patent”) to Mogilevsky. The disclosure of the '222 patentdiscusses a method for checking spelling in a word processor whereinspell checking is conducted in conjunction with the editing process. Thespell checker maintains a table of spelling status data, which includescodes to identify checked, unchecked or edited ranges of characters.During idle periods, the spelling status data is analyzed to determinetext requiring spell checking and spelling errors are highlighted duringthe editing process. The spelling status data is maintained with thedocument so that spell checked portions of the document do not need tobe re-checked.

Similar systems and methods are also known to the art wherein thegrammar of an electronic document is verified in a background process.For example, according to U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,075 (“the '075 patent”) toFein, at al., while a word processor is in edit mode, i.e., the user isentering data or commands, idle periods are identified by the wordprocessing software or a component thereof. During a given idle period,a sentence is extracted from the document to determine whether thesentence is properly constructed. If the sentence is not properlyconstructed, an error is indicated to the user in the context of theelectronic document. This process is repeated for each sentence in theelectronic document until either the entire electronic document isproofed or the idle period ends. A context menu may be displayed topresent corrections for the error.

Systems and methods such as those known to the art, however, do notteach how to apply the state of the art to systems and methods forautomatically processing literary citations. The process of properlyciting references in a document, such as an article for a scholarlyjournal, is necessarily complex due to the sheer number of potentialreferences for citation. Furthermore, systems and methods directed toproblem of automatically processing citations must ensure the accuracyof processed citations, as well as select a citation from one or moreacceptable citations based on a limited set of citation data. Thus,systems and methods are required for automatically processing citationswithin documents based on citation data provided by an author.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to systems and methods forautomatically processing one or more citations contained within adocument while the document is presented by a document renderingapplication. The method of the present invention comprises scanning thedocument to identify an unformatted citation and parsing the unformattedcitation to determine one or more citation terms. One or more citationlibraries are queried to find citations comprising the one or morecitation terms. A citation falling within the scope of the query isselected, properly formatted and inserted into the document.

In order to automate the processing of citations contained within adocument, scanning is executed periodically. According to one embodimentof the invention, scanning is executed when an idle state is identified.The method may comprise embedding into the document a traveling librarycomprising citation data that forms the citation inserted into thedocument. Also, links to citation data may be inserted that forms thecitation falling within the scope of the query.

The present invention also contemplates a system for automaticallyprocessing one or more citations contained within a document while thedocument is presented by a document rendering application. The system ofthe present invention comprises citation editor software to identify anunformatted citation within the document. The citation editor softwareworks in conjunction with a citation application to receive theunformatted citation, retrieve a citation that matches the unformattedcitation from a citation library, and pass the citation back to thecitation editor software for formatting and insertion into the document.The citation editor software may identify the unformatted citation on aperiodic basis, such as when an idle state is identified.

The system may make use of a shared library to convert data from a firstformat to a second format. Accordingly, the first format may be a nativeformat of the citation editor software and the second format a nativeformat of the citation application. A traveling library may be employedthat contains citation data that forms the citation, which is embeddedinto the document. According to embodiments of the invention, links areinserted into the document linking to citation data that forms thecitation, which may comprise a drawing or chart.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The invention is illustrated in the figures of the accompanying drawingswhich are meant to be exemplary and not limiting, in which likereferences are intended to refer to like or corresponding parts, and inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram presenting a configuration of hardware andsoftware components according to one embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram presenting a process for automaticallyformatting citations within a document according to one embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 3 is a screen diagram presenting an interface for resolvingambiguous citations according to one embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram presenting a method for exporting a travelinglibrary according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram presenting a method for generating abibliography according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram presenting a method for editing a citationaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram presenting a method for inserting a noteaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram presenting a method for editing a libraryreference according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram presenting a method for inserting a chart ordiagram from publication into a document according to one embodiment ofthe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

With reference to FIGS. 1 through 8, various embodiments of theinvention are presented. FIG. 1 is a block diagram presenting oneembodiment of a configuration of the hardware and software componentscomprising the present invention. A general purpose operating system 102is provided as a framework for storing data and executing applications,as well as policing the flow of input and output. Exemplary generalpurpose operating systems are Mac OS from Apple Computer, Inc., Windowsfrom Microsoft Corp., and various distributions of the Linux and UNIXoperating systems.

A computer 100 that comprises one or more microprocessors 114 executesthe operating system 102. When the computer initially boots up,instructions are provided from Read-Only Memory (ROM) 118 in order toprovide a basic set of input/output functionality to the microprocessor114. The set of instructions contained in ROM 118 is used by themicroprocessor 114 to load the operating system 102, which is typicallymaintained on a persistent storage device such as a hard drive (notpictured). The microprocessor 114 uses Random Access Memory 116 in orderto maintain transient storage space that is used by the operating system102 in addition to other executing application programs, e.g., adocument rendering application 108.

An author using the computer 100 executes a document renderingapplication 108. According to one embodiment of the invention, thedocument rendering application 108 is a word processor used to drafttext and similar mixed media documents, such as MICROSOFT WORD™.Alternatively, the document rendering application may comprise a HTMLtext editor, such as MICROSOFT FRONTPAGE™ or BBEDIT™ by Bare BonesSoftware, Inc. Indeed, all software systems designed to manipulate andrender text data files fall within the scope of the present invention.

Many document rendering applications 108 comprise the capability toexpand the functionality of the application through the use of a plug-inor similar architecture. The system of present invention comprises acitation editor add-in 106 that provides citation processing within thecontext of the document rendering application 108. In Microsoft Word, aprogrammer may develop an add-in, also referred to as a global template,to provide generic functionality in the Word environment. For example,an add-in may contain common tools for working with documents 104. Theauthor is provided access to functionality of the citation editor add-in106 by clicking graphical toolbar elements and menu commands that thecitation editor add-in offers. Alternatively, the citation editor add-inmay be a supplemental program that adds custom commands or customfeatures to an application. It should be noted that the citation editoradd-in, as well as the other components of the present invention, may beembodied as software stored on computer readable media that, when loadedby a computer, instructs the computer to execute the processes describedin greater detail herein.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the citation editor add-in106 is a COM (Component Object Model) object designed to be loaded andrun in one or more Microsoft Office applications. COM add-ins aredesigned to connect to and disconnect from one or more Officeapplications using an architecture that is shared between theapplications. The citation editor add-in 106 may be implemented with anynumber of programming tools capable of creating DLLs (Dynamic LinkLibraries).

The citation editor add-in 106 provides access to multiple functionsrelated to the creation of citations, as well as bibliographies.Exemplary functionality includes the capability to find, edit and insertcitations, access to an external citation application, format abibliography, remove specialized field codes from a document, andprepare a traveling library for export with the document wherein otherauthors may have access to the citation reference used to build acitation contained within a document 104. The citation editor add-in 106also provides instant formatting of citations while an author isdrafting a document. According to embodiments of the invention thecitation may comprise a graphic, such as a drawing or chart that isbeing cited.

When the document rendering application 108 is executed, the citationeditor add-in 106 is loaded. The citation editor add-in 106 implementsthe menu and toolbar elements, which provide communication to thecitation application 112 and the document rendering application 108 asrequired to implement or execute the command selected by the documentauthor. According to one embodiment, this communication in implementedby way of COM interfaces exposed by the document rendering application106 and the citation application 112 by way of a shared library 110.Furthermore, the citation editor add-in 106 monitors the document 104for conditions that require citation processing, e.g., the presence oftemporary citations.

The shared library 110 may be loaded by the citation application 112 orby the citation editor add-in 106 when the document renderingapplication 108 is initially instantiated. The shared library 110 servesas an intermediary between the citation editor add-in 106 and thecitation application 112. Essentially, the shared library 110 convertsdata from an initial format to a format that is native to the citationapplication 112. For example, where the citation editor add-in 106 isimplemented as a COM object, the shared library 110 translates COM dataelements into data elements that adhere to the communication protocol orformat that is native to the citation application 112, e.g., providesthe COM interface.

The shared library 110 offers an interface to the functionality providedby the citation application 112, which is where application logicexecuted by the citation editor add-in 106 resides. One major functionof the citation application 112 is to provide underlying citation datathat is used by the citation editor add-in 106 to present properlyformatted citations within a document 104. The citation editor add-in106 periodically scans the document 104, e.g., when an idle state isdetected due to the fact the author has stopped entering text orcommands. According to one embodiment of the invention, temporarycitations are identified and the citation terms contained within thetemporary citation are passed to the citation application 112 via theshared library 110. Alternatively, the author may manually indicatetemporary citations for processing on a case-by-case basis.

Advantageously, an author may supply pieces of a citation within adocument 104 in an unformatted fashion whereby the citation editoradd-in 106, in conjunction with the citation application 112, modifiesthe data to provide a complete formatted citation. The citation editoradd-in 106 periodically scans the document 104 to identify temporarycitations. According to one embodiment, the citation editor add-in 106scans the document 104 when an idle period is identified, e.g., when theauthor pauses in the process of editing or entering commands. Thecitation editor add-in 106, in conjunction with the citation application112, replaces the temporary citation with a properly formatted citation.Furthermore, it should be noted that the citation may be used toreference a chart or drawing cited through the use of a temporarycitation, which may be scanned and formatted by the present invention.

The process of automatically formatting of citations is also referred toas background or instant formatting. It allows an author to always beworking with current formatted citations within a document 104. When anauthor adds a citation to a document 104, the system and method of thepresent invention formats the citation in the body of the document 104and may also append the citation to a bibliography at the end of thedocument 104. The process may also be triggered when a new citation isentered, or when an existing citation is modified to ensure the citationis correct. According to one embodiment, an instant formatting flag isset within the document metadata to instruct the citation editor add-in106 whether instant formatting should be executed. When instantformatting is disabled, the author may manually access the citationfunctionality of the citation application 112 through graphical controlspresented by the content editor add-in 106, albeit manually.

When scanning, the citation editor add-in 106 identifies citationdelimiters, which as a default are represented by curly braces (“{ }”),although the author may define a custom set of citation delimiters.Within the citation delimiters are a number of citation terms separatedby a term delimiter, such as a comma. Accordingly a temporary citationmay contain no commas, one comma, two commas, or three or more commas.Semicolons or another suitable delimiter may be used within a set ofcitation terms to serve as a citation separator so that the search foreach citation is executed separately, e.g., {Smith, 1991, Dinosaur;Dolphin}. The citation editor add-in 106 scans the document andidentifies citations entered into the document 104 by the author. Theterms within the term delimiters are parsed into one or more citationterms and passed to the citation application 112 by way of the sharedlibrary 110, which converts data into the native format of the citationapplication 112.

The citation application 112 analyzes the received terms to identify thepresence of term delimiters (commas) and citation delimiters(semicolons). Where commas are utilized to delimit terms, strictresolution is utilized. For example, the citation {Smith Jones, 1998March, Dinosaur extinction} is resolved as if each of the terms isenclosed by quotation marks, as is well 5 known to those of skill in theart. Alternatively, where one or more terms are supplied, e.g., {SmithJones 1998 March Dinosaur extinction}, the citation is resolved bysupplying a Boolean “AND” between each of the terms and identifyingcitations comprising all of the terms. The citation application'sanalysis results in the formulation of a citation query.

The citation application 112 uses the citation query to query one ormore citation libraries 122 and 124. The citation libraries 122 and 124may be accessed over a network 120, which may be a local or wide areanetwork, such as an intranet or the Internet. As is explained in greaterdetail herein, a local database (not pictured) may be maintainedcomprising selected citations chosen by the author, obviating the needto access the remote sources 122 and 124. Each citation library 122 and124 comprises one or more citations for references appearing in one ormore journals.

Host data files may be provided indicating the address of remotecitation libraries such as university card catalogs, the Library ofCongress, specialized databases such as PubMed, PsycINFO, and ERIC frompopular providers such as Ovid Technologies, SilverPlatter, and OCLC.Typically the citation library comprises a database manager that acceptsthe citation query, searches the citations contained within the library122 and 124, and returns a result set comprising citations fallingwithin the scope of the citation query. The citation query maypreferably be submitted simultaneously to a plurality of citationlibraries 122 and 124.

The result set is returned to the citation application 112. Where theresult set comprises only one citation, e.g., a definitive match wasfound to the query, the citation that the author wishes to insert intothe document 104 is identified. The citation data is passed to thecitation editor add-in 106 via the shared library 110 for insertion intothe document 104. “Field codes” that references citation data areinserted into the document, which may be stored in local or remotecitation libraries maintained by the user or a third party dataprovider. The field codes are links to underlying citation data that isused as a source for the formatted citation displayed in the document.

In displaying the formatted citation, the format defined through thefield codes may be set by author-defined parameters. Various scholarlyjournals have different constraints regarding the formatting requirementfor citations. For example, the Journal of the American MedicalAssociation may require that citations adhere to a first format, whilethe journal Science may require a wholly different citation format. Thesystem of the present invention may advantageously be supplied withcitation format parameters for well known journals and publications. Inthis manner, an author may ensure that citations within a documentadhere to a target publication's citation specifications simply byselecting the publication through an interface whereby the parametersare automatically set. Alternatively, or in combination, the author mayoverride anyone or more citation format parameters to set a desiredvalue. Furthermore, functionality is provided whereby an author maychange the target publication for a document, causing the software totraverse the document and modify the format of the citations containedtherein to adhere to the new target publication's citationspecifications.

Another feature offered by the system and method of the presentinvention is a “traveling library”. The author may export a travelinglibrary whereby the field codes are used to embed data regarding thereference into the document. When the document is accessed by acollaborator that does not have access to the same citation libraries122 and 124, the reference data can be found and the full citation andreference are provided when the file is loaded into a document renderingprogram, thereby obviating the need to manually locate the citationsagain using the citation application 112 to recreate the libraries usedby their collaborators. Furthermore, where a collaborator usesadditional libraries to insert citations within the document, these maybe exported and passed back to the original author, who has access tothe full set of citation data.

FIG. 2 presents a flow diagram illustrating a method of operating thehardware and software components of FIG. 1 to automatically formatcitations contained within a document. Using a document renderingapplication such as a word processor, an author enters an unformattedcitation, which is enclosed or encapsulated by a set of citationdelimiters, for example, curly braces, step 202. Alternatively, theauthor may perform edits to a formatted citation requiring the citationto be revalidated or reformatted. A check is performed to determine ifbackground citation scanning is enabled, step 204. The check at step 204is preferably performed when the document is loaded by the documentrendering application. This data may be supplied through the use of adata flag that is set in the document's metadata. Where backgroundscanning is not enabled, program flow is directed to step 220 where thedocument is refreshed without modifying the text inserted by the user.

Where background citation scanning is enabled, step 204, the document isscanned to identify unformatted citations or citations that have beenformatted but subsequently modified, step 206. Identifying citationsthat have been modified after being formatted may be accomplished in anumber of ways. For example, a data file may be maintained where thecitation editor add-in compiles a listing of all formatted citations ina given document. Each time the document is scanned, the citation editoradd-in compares the formatted citations in the document with thepreviously formatted citations contained in the data file to determineif any formatted citations have been subsequently modified.Alternatively, the citation editor add-in may set a flag each time acitation is formatted, which is removed if a formatted citation issubsequently modified. When scanning, the citation editor add-in checksthe formatting of all previously formatted citations where the flag hasbeen removed.

According to embodiments of the invention, the step of scanning thedocument is performed when an idle state is identified during theprocess of entering text or commands. The citation terms supplied by theauthor is parsed, determining the citation terms and any term delimitersthat may be present in the citation, to prepare a citation query that isexecuted at one or more citation libraries, step 208. The result of thequery are returned and analyzed to determine the number of recordscontained within the result set. A check is performed to determine if anexact match was identified as falling within the scope of the citationquery, step 210.

Where an exact match has been found identifying a citation in one of thecitation libraries, step 210, field codes identifying the citation areinserted into the document, providing a view to the citation datacontained within the sole record in the result set, step 216. Where theresult set comprises multiple records, however, a display is presentedto the author presenting a listing of the citations that fall within thescope of the citation query, step 212. Using an input device, the authorselects the citation that he or she wishes to appear in the document,step 214. Field codes identifying the citation are inserted into thedocument to provide a view to the citation data contained within theselected record from the result set, step 216.

A check is performed to determine if additional unformatted or modifiedcitations are present in the document, step 218. Where additionalcitations that require formatting are present in the document,processing returns to step 208 where a citation query comprisingcitations terms from the outstanding citation is formulated and executedagainst one or more citation libraries as per steps 210, 212, 214 and216. Where all the citations are processed, the document is refreshedwhereby the field codes present formatted citation data to the author,step 220. According to embodiments of the invention, the process isrepeated, step 206, 208, 210, 212, 214, 216 and 218, at regularintervals, e.g., when and idle period is encountered.

One embodiment of an interface for reviewing citations retrieved fromcitations libraries as falling within the scope of the citation querythrough operation of the process presented in FIG. 2 is illustrated inFIG. 3. A search term field 302 is presented wherein citation termsforming the citation query are presented to the author. In this manner,the author is provided with the context of the present query. Accordingto embodiments of the invention, the author may modify the citationterms here and execute the modified citation query against the citationlibrary. Below the search terms is the result set 302, which comprisescitation records that fall within the scope of the citation query. Usingan input device, the author may select a citation from the result set toreview the citation data.

The citation data 306 is presented in a frame occupying the lower halfof the interface. The citation data comprises detailed informationregarding the reference that forms the basis for the citation including,but not limited to, the reference type, author, year of publicationtitle of the reference and publication, as well as other miscellaneousinformation. Advantageously, the citation data may further comprise anabstract providing a brief summary or overview of the substance of thereference. This information is useful to an author in determining if aparticular reference is the source of the intended citation.

The ambiguous citation currently being analyzed by the software of thepresent invention may be acted on by selection of one of the providedinterface controls. Using an input device, the author may select on ofthe citations in the result set 304 for insertion into the document.Selection of the insert control 308 inserts the selected citation intothe document. Alternatively, the author may choose to ignore 310 thecurrent citation or ignore all of the unformatted citations 312contained within the document. Likewise, the citation formatting processmay be canceled 314. A control is also provided that allows access to ahelp system 316 that provides answers to questions an author might haveregarding operation of the invention.

As described above, authors may compile selected citation data into alocal database imbedded within the document in order to enable others towork with properly formatted citations in the document. The process ofexporting a traveling library is presented in FIG. 4. Using an inputdevice, the author selects a control provided by the citation editoradd-in that executes the export process, step 402. In response to theauthor command, the software presents an “export traveling library”dialog box, step 404. Using the interface presented by the dialog box,the author may set preferences regarding the manner in which export isperformed.

A check is performed to determine whether the author is creating a newcitation library in the citation application or adding to an existinglibrary, step 406. Where the author is attempting to export a newcitation library in the citation application, step 406, a check isperformed to determine if the field codes are still contained within thedocument, step 408. If the author removes the field codes and replacesthem with plain text, the software is unable to invoke exportfunctionality and an error message is presented to the author indicatingthat the export operation has failed, step 416. Where the software isable to detect the field codes in the document that comprises thecitations, a citation library in the citation application comprising thecitation data for all the citations contained within the document, step412.

Where the author is attempting to export citation data to an existingcitation library in the citation application, step 406, a check isperformed to determine if the field codes are still contained within thedocument, step 410. If the author removes the field codes and replacesthem with plain text, the software is unable to invoke exportfunctionality and an error message is presented to the author indicatingthat the export operation has failed, step 416. According to oneembodiment of the invention, selection of a graphical control providedby the software of the present invention is operative to replace thefield codes in the document with the plain text to which the field codeslink. Alternatively, the field codes may be manually removed by theauthor and replaced with the plain text to which the field codes link.

Where the software is able to detect the field codes in the documentthat comprises the citations, additional selected citation data is addedto the citation library in the citation application that was previouslyembedded into the document, step 414. Regardless of whether the authoris creating a new citation library in the citation application or addingto an existing one, program flow is consolidated at step 418 where thesoftware refreshes the document to reflect any changes made by theoperation.

The software and methods presented here may also be used toautomatically generate a formatted bibliography from citations that areadded to a document, as illustrated in FIG. 5. One embodiment of thebibliography generation process begins when the author selects a controlpresented by the citation editor add-in that executes the bibliographyfunctionality, step 502. The author is provided an opportunity to defineone or more preferences regarding the output style that the bibliographywill take, step 504. For example, bibliography preferences include, butare not limited to, font style, size, indentations, starting number forthe bibliography, etc. Alternatively, bibliography preferences are setbefore hand by the author and the software simply reads the definedpreferences from a data file at step 504.

The software scans the document to determine if citations exist that areawaiting formatting, step 506. Where unformatted citations are presentin a document, a citation list is presented to the author, step 508.Using an input device, the author selects the appropriate reference thatis associated with the citation supplied by the user. Program flowreturns to step 506 where another check is performed for unformattedcitations. That process is repeated for all unformatted citations.Alternatively, a process analogous to steps 208, 210, 212, 214 and 216presented in FIG. 2 are executed for each of the unformatted citationscontained within the document in place of the process of step 508. Allof the citations in the document are properly formatted and the softwareinserts the citations into a bibliography, step 510. It should be clearto one skilled in the art that this process may easily be modified toprovide for dynamic updating of the bibliography as new citations aresupplied or existing citations are editing, which is considered withinthe scope of the present invention.

Additionally, an author may edit selected citations that have previouslybeen inserted into a document and formatted, as presented by the methodof FIG. 6. An author is provided with graphical controls by the citationeditor that supply assistance with the citation editing process, whichis selected by the author to being the editing process, step 602. Thecitation editor add-in transmits a citation edit request to the citationapplication, which is translated into the native format of the citationapplication by the shared library. In response to the request, thecitation application prepares a listing of all citations containedwithin the document for presentation to the author by the citationadd-in, step 604.

Using an input device, the author may supply changes to one or more ofthe citations in the document. According to one embodiment of theinvention, an interface similar to that presented in FIG. 3 is suppliedwhereby the author is presented with all references that matched thepreviously supplied citation terms and given an opportunity to modifythe citation terms associated with one or more selected citations.Regardless of the method used to receive citation edits, the edits aresubmitted by way of the shared library to the citation application forrecordation, step 606, which may also include modifying the citationlist and field codes in the document to reflect the edits supplied bythe author, step 608.

The present invention provides valuable functionality to insert notesinto documents; one embodiment of a method for providing suchfunctionality is presented in FIG. 7. When required by a given journal,for example, Science, the author selects a graphical control provided bythe citation editor add-in to insert a note, step 702. In response, anote insertion dialog box is presented to the author, 704. The authorsubmits the text of the note into the note insertion dialog box and,when complete, selects a graphical submission control, step 706. Thedocument is refreshed to display the note in the document, step 708.Advantageously, controls are supplied or parameters may be set throughwhich the author may indicate the precise position within the documentwhere the note should appear.

As previously indicated, an author may elect to use a local citationlibrary in addition, or opposed to, one or more remote libraries. Oneembodiment of a method for editing references contained in a localcitation library is presented in FIG. 8. It should be noted, however, asit is assumed that the author has editing privileges on the localcitation library, that the method of FIG. 8 is likewise applicable toremote citation libraries where the author has editing privileges.

In order to edit a reference, the author must select a document orsubset thereof, step 802. The minimum acceptable subset of the documentis an individual citation. Using graphical controls supplied by thecitation editor add-in, the author selects a control to edit theselected references, step 804. Citation data, e.g., informationcomprising a reference, for each of the citations present in theselected document or portion thereof is presented to the user, step 806.According to one embodiment, the data is presented in a list format.

Using the graphical interface, the author selects references and makesthe required edits, step 808. The author may sequentially edit multiplereferences. The completed edits are saved to the citation library, whichmay be local or remote, so long as the author has editing privileges onthe citation library. The document is refreshed to present changes tothe citations contained therein based on the edits made to theunderlying references, step 810.

Turning to FIG. 9, a process is presented that allows an author toinsert a graphic from a publication, such as a chart or diagram, into adocument. Using the graphical interface provided by the citation editoradd-in, the author selects a graphical control to insert a figure ordiagram from a publication into the document, step 902. In response tothe selection of the control, the citation editor add-in presents aninsert figure dialog box, step 904. Using the graphical controlspresented via the dialog box, the author enters one or more parametersidentifying the desired figure. For example, the author may supply apublication, an author, an article title, publication date, or otherdata that may uniquely identify the desired figure.

Using the data regarding the desired figure that is supplied by theauthor, a figure query is prepared that is used to search one or morecitation libraries for the desired figure, step 906. A result setcomprising figures contained within the citation databases that fallwithin the scope of the figure query is presented to the user, step 908.Using an input device, the author selects that appropriate figure fromthe list of presented figures. The selected figure is inserted into thedocument and presented to the author, step 910. Alternatively, thefigure parameters may be supplied as a temporary citation andautomatically formatted according to the process presented in FIG. 2.

While the invention has been described and illustrated in connectionwith preferred embodiments, many variations and modifications as will beevident to those skilled in this art may be made without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the invention, and the invention is thus not tobe limited to the precise details of methodology or construction setforth above as such variations and modification are intended to beincluded within the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-based method for processing one ormore citations for inclusion in an electronic document, the methodcomprising: editing an electronic document via a document renderingapplication; presenting a citation interface for receiving from a userinput a set of citation terms related to a citation for inclusion in theelectronic document; identifying a set of at least one citation recordfrom at least one citation authority based at least in part on thereceived set of citation terms; presenting a representation of one ormore of the identified set of at least one citation record to a user forselection of a citation for inclusion in the electronic document;receiving an electronic signal representing a user selection of acitation from the presented one or more of the set of at least onecitation record; and inserting into the electronic document citationdata from the corresponding citation record associated with the selectedcitation.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the citation authoritycomprises a set of at least one authority database accessible over acommunications network.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying aset of at least one citation record from at least one citation authorityfurther comprises: querying one or more citation libraries to findpossible matching citations, each possible matching citation comprisingat least a portion of the set of citation terms.
 4. The method of claim1 further comprising: providing a hyperlink between the identifiedcitation and a corresponding citation in a bibliography of citations. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein the document rendering application is oneof a word processing application, Microsoft WORD, HTML text editorapplication, OpenOffice Writer, Apple Pages, and Bare Bones BBEDIT. 6.The method of claim 1, wherein the document rendering applicationincludes a citation editor add-in module adapted to provide citationprocessing within operation of the document rendering application. 7.The method of claim 1 further comprising: automatically formatting theidentified citation in accordance with citation formatting parametersassociated with a default citation format or selected citation format.8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: automatically reformattingthe identified citation in response to a selection of a other citationformat.
 9. The method of claim 1 further comprising embedding into theelectronic document a traveling library comprising citation data andcitation formatting data.
 10. The method of claim 9 wherein thetraveling library further comprises a set of one or more formattedcitations.
 11. The method of claim 1 wherein presenting a citationinterface for receiving from a user input a set of citation termscomprises presenting a data input window associated with a COM object,receiving a set of at least one term entered via the data input window,the set of at least one term representing a user-supplied portion of acitation for inclusion in the electronic document, and executing auser-selected command.
 12. The method of claim 1 further comprisingpresenting a user with a set of at least two citation authorities andreceiving an electronic signal representing a selected one of the set ofat least two citation authorities.
 13. The method of claim 12 whereinthe set of at least two citation authorities includes at least onecitation library stored on a computer executing a document renderingapplication associated with the electronic document and at least oneremote citation library database in communication with the computer. 14.The method of claim 1 further comprising adding to a bibliography thecitation data from the corresponding citation record associated with theselected citation.
 15. The method of claim 1 further comprisingautomatically generating a bibliography section in the electronicdocument comprising citation data for each corresponding citation recordassociated with each selected citation.
 16. The method of claim 1further comprising automatically compiling citation data for eachcorresponding citation record associated with each selected citationinto a local database embedded within the electronic document.
 17. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the received set of citation terms isunformatted and the citation data from the corresponding citation recordassociated with the selected citation is formatted according to apredefined citation format.
 18. The method of claim 1, whereinpresenting a citation interface for receiving a set of citation termsrelated to a citation for inclusion in the electronic document is byoperation of a document rendering application plug-in module.
 19. Acomputer-based system for processing one or more citations for inclusionin an electronic document, the system comprising: a processor; a memorycommunicatively coupled with the processor; computer executable codestored in the memory, the computer executable code comprising: adocument rendering application; a citation editing code set comprising:citation interface code set when executed by the processor adapted topresent a citation interface and receive a user input representing a setof citation terms related to a citation for inclusion in the electronicdocument; citation identifying code set adapted to identify a set of atleast one citation record from at least one citation library based atleast in part on the received set of citation terms; citation selectioncode set adapted to present a representation of one or more of theidentified set of at least one citation record and to receive anelectronic signal representing a user selection of a citation from thepresented one or more of the set of at least one citation record; andcitation insertion code set adapted to insert into the electronicdocument citation data from the corresponding citation record associatedwith the selected citation.
 20. The system of claim 19, wherein thecitation library comprises a set of at least one authority databaseaccessible over a communications network.
 21. The system of claim 19,wherein the citation identifying code set is further adapted to queryone or more citation libraries to find possible matching citations, eachpossible matching citation comprising at least a portion of the set ofcitation terms.
 22. The system of claim 19 further comprising: ahyperlink code set adapted to provide a hyperlink between the identifiedcitation and a corresponding citation in a bibliography of citations.23. The system of claim 19, wherein the document rendering applicationis one of a word processing application, Microsoft WORD, HTML texteditor application, OpenOffice Writer, Apple Pages, and Bare BonesBBEDIT.
 24. The system of claim 19, wherein the document renderingapplication includes a citation editor add-in module adapted to providecitation processing within operation of the document renderingapplication.
 25. The system of claim 19 further comprising citationformatting code set adapted to automatically format the identifiedcitation in accordance with citation formatting parameters associatedwith a default citation format or selected citation format.
 26. Thesystem of claim 25, wherein the citation formatting code set is furtheradapted to automatically reformat the identified citation in response toa selection of a other citation format.
 27. The system of claim 19further comprising a traveling library comprising citation data andcitation formatting data, the traveling library being embedded into theelectronic document.
 28. The system of claim 27 wherein the travelinglibrary further comprises a set of one or more formatted citations. 29.The system of claim 19 wherein the citation interface code set isadapted to present a data input window associated with a COM object,receiving a set of at least one term entered via the data input window,the set of at least one term representing a user-supplied portion of acitation for inclusion in the electronic document, and wherein thecitation identifying code set is adapted to execute a user-selectedcommand.
 30. The system of claim 19 further comprising: a user-interfacecode set adapted to present a user with a set of at least two citationlibraries and to receive an electronic signal representing a selectedone of the set of at least two citation libraries.
 31. The system ofclaim 30 wherein the set of at least two citation libraries includes atleast one citation library stored on a computer executing a documentrendering application associated with the electronic document and atleast one remote citation library database in communication with thecomputer.
 32. The system of claim 19 further comprising a bibliographycode set adapted to generate a bibliography comprising the citation datafrom the corresponding citation record associated with the selectedcitation.
 33. The system of claim 19 further comprising a bibliographycode set adapted to automatically generate a bibliography section in theelectronic document comprising citation data for each correspondingcitation record associated with each selected citation.
 34. The systemof claim 19 further comprising a citation bibliography code set adaptedto automatically compile citation data for each corresponding citationrecord associated with each selected citation into a local databaseembedded within the electronic document.
 35. The system of claim 19,wherein the received set of citation terms is unformatted and thecitation data from the corresponding citation record associated with theselected citation is formatted according to a predefined citationformat.
 36. The system of claim 19, wherein the citation editing codeset is a plug-in module incorporated into the document renderingapplication.
 37. The system of claim 19, wherein the citation editingcode set is adapted to interface the document rendering application withthe citation library, the citation editing code set comprising a set ofgraphical controls selectable via the document rendering application andadapted to execute user-selected citation commands.
 38. The system ofclaim 37, wherein the set of graphical controls includes a user inputwindow including an input field for receiving a user-supplied portion ofa citation for inclusion in the electronic document.
 39. The system ofclaim 37, wherein the set of graphical controls includes a tool forpresenting for user-selection a set of citation formats.
 40. The systemof claim 39 further comprising a citation formatting code set adapted toautomatically reformat citations included in the electronic documentbased on a user-selected citation format command.
 41. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium comprising computer executable code comprising:a citation editing code set adapted to operate in conjunction with adocument rendering application, the citation editing code setcomprising: citation interface code set when executed by the processoradapted to present a citation interface and receive a user inputrepresenting a set of citation terms related to a citation for inclusionin the electronic document; citation identifying code set adapted toidentify a set of at least one citation record from at least onecitation library based at least in part on the received set of citationterms; citation selection code set adapted to present a representationof one or more of the identified set of at least one citation record andto receive an electronic signal representing a user selection of acitation from the presented one or more of the set of at least onecitation record; and citation insertion code set adapted to insert intothe electronic document citation data from the corresponding citationrecord associated with the selected citation.